Gardai were called out to Smithfield earlier this week after 3,000 people turned up outside a homeless day centre get a ticket for much needed Christmas food parcels.
People started queuing for the tickets at the Capuchin Day Centre on Bow Street in Smithfield at 4am on Wednesday, with doors only opening at 7am. By 11am, gardai were called after thousands of people had turned up at the centre.
Centre manager Alan Bailey told Dublin Live that this year they have seen a "huge demand" on their services as many people struggle amid the cost of living crisis. He said: "We had something like 3,000 people on Wednesday, it was very busy. It was a big crowd and we have a huge demand this year.
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"We don't ask people why they're there, and this time of year people are under a lot of different pressure with Christmas and everything else. A lot of families and people are on a fine line with money, they're managing but only just."
The centre would usually hand out around 1,100 food parcels on a normal Wednesday morning, but due to the demand for Christmas hamper tickets, it distributed 3,000 food parcels. This is a big increase for the centre - last year they distributed 2,600 tickets for Christmas hampers.
Mr Bailey explained: "Not all of our clients are homeless, they're all struggling with some costs of living. The cold weather has been hard, seeing people queuing from 4:15am on Wednesday morning for their tickets, it's a frightening thing to see."
He said that this year they will help people as best they can, and that their door will always be open for anyone looking for help. All available tickets were distributed by lunchtime on Wednesday, and hampers or supermarket vouchers will be distributed from 8am next Tuesday, December 20.
The Capuchin Centre will also make its last distribution of infants’ and children’s hampers before Christmas next Monday, with nappies, formula and other essentials to be given out to those in need. A garda spokesman told Dublin Live: "Gardaí were at the Capuchin Day Centre on Wednesday morning, 14 December 2022, in a crowd management capacity." Gardai also confirmed that they will have a policing plan in place for the annual Christmas hamper and voucher dispersal on Tuesday, 20 December.
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